Monday, June 01, 2015

Pacific storms ground solar plane on round-the-world trip

Solar Impulse 2 has been forced to delay its landmark crossing of the Pacific Ocean by making an unscheduled stop in the Japanese city of Nagoya on Monday due to bad weather on its planned route to Hawaii."Weather deteriorating over Pacific, decision taken for intermediate landing in Nagoya and wait for better conditions," Bertrand Piccard, the initiator of the mission, tweeted on Monday.

The Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft set off from Abu Dhabi in March on an unprecedented round-the-world journey it hopes to complete in five months.

It left the Chinese city of Nanjing early on May 31 en route to Hawaii -- the seventh and trickiest leg of its epic tour powered only by the sun.

The team behind Solar Impulse 2, which has more than 17,000 solar cells built into its wings, hopes to promote green energy with its circumnavigation attempt.

Ridiculed by the aviation industry when it was first unveiled, the venture has since been hailed around the world, including by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)france24.com1/6/15---Related:

The pilot of the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 airplane said it was a “great pleasure” to be in Japan after making an unscheduled pit stop at Nagoya Airport toward midnight on Monday, but pledged to continue his record-breaking voyage as soon as the weather clears.

Swiss aviator Andre Borschberg, who lived in Japan 30 years ago, arrived from Nanjing in China after notching up the aircraft’s longest nonstop flight to date, lasting one day and one night. He opted to drop down into Japan to wait out a difficult weather front he would otherwise have to cross on the way to Hawaii.

A small ground crew had been waiting in Japan to deal with this sort of contingency, a mission spokeswoman told The Japan Times on Monday. The main support crew was expected to fly in from Nanjing later Tuesday, bringing, among other things, a huge inflatable hangar that needs to be assembled in sections to cover the plane, including its 72-meter wings.............japantimes.co.jp2/6/15

EL Kaos UT

The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region's resources.